Windhoek
Unregulated rental fees will soon become history after a lengthy meeting by President Hage Geingob and representatives of Affirmative Repositioning (AR) at State House on Monday.
A joint press statement released on Monday said government and the AR movement had agreed that Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila will, in line with Section 33 of the Estate Agents Act 11/1976, summon the Estate Agents Board to review and address escalating property prices (tariffs) before August 1.
Currently there is an enormous market for rentals with all the daily newspapers having columns for rentals. Some landlords charge N$1 200 for a backyard corrugated-iron sheet shack in Katutura, while a mansion in Klein Windhoek goes for N$35 000.
At present nobody controls landlords on how much rent to charge for properties.
The meeting also agreed to operationalise the Rent Control Board as provided for by the Rent Ordinance of 13/1977, as a matter of urgency.
Both parties urge those responsible for the implementation of this agreement to act with a sense of urgency to ensure that no time is lost.
At the same meeting, Geingob reiterated government’s commitment to the goal of servicing 200 000 residential plots, as agreed at the July 24 meeting with the AR movement.
To this end, a number of strategies would have to be deployed simultaneously and with urgency, to achieve maximum impact.
“The Massive Urban Land Servicing Programme, which was the outcome of the July 2015 meeting, remains a priority under the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP) as articulated in the plan,” read the joint the statement.
The statement says the 26 000 plots targeted under the HPP are one of the multiple, short-term strategies to be implemented towards the delivering of 200 000 serviced residential plots.
The statement further says that another strategy would be the pre-allocation of land by municipalities as stated on page 42 of HPP, which will deliver a greater number of serviced erven.
The statement further said municipalities are ready to commence with the rollout of land pre-allocation, as soon as possible.
Other strategies include subsidization of qualifying local authorities, resumption of the mass housing initiative programme, introduction of special housing solutions for civil servants, the Shack Dwellers Association and commitment by the private sector towards employee housing.